This series of podcasts dissects the What's New PDF, outlining all the new functionality in SolidWorks 2014 with tips, tricks and insights into the new major release of SolidWorks' product line. Topics covered in this show:

SolidWorks Assemblies and CircuitWorks, covering chapter 5 and 6 of the What's New PDF, outline changes/enhancements to the SolidWorks product line since the previous release. If you have not done so, please download this PDF and walk through the areas that are most important to you.

The goal of this series is to provide a portable, audio version of the 2014 What's New, providing an efficient way to evaluate new features that have been changed/added/removed in the SolidWorks product line. We all fall victim to the "ruts" of using SolidWorks from release to release and knowing what's to come brings awareness early.

I will be releasing an additional show a week as well as the usual monthly Tech News shows (up to 3 a week) in order to cover the entire What's New PDF before FCS (First Customer Ship). Between the podcast, blog and other posts around the web, there will be no shortage of SolidWorks 2013 content to come!

This podcast covers the new configurations management feature built right into the ConfigurationManager inside of SolidWorks. Topics covered:

- Overview on the new functionality in Configuration

- Understanding icon feedback and options

- Effects with version interoperability

- Usage models and tips

Configurations are one of my favorite and most used, foundation features of SolidWorks and have not had much enhancement since the introduction of Display States. Anyone who uses configurations knows that as the number of configs goes up, so does the file size. Finally there is a way to keep the file size down and have full control of which configurations have quick access.

After using this, one of the best parts about the new configuration management feature is it works on not only 2013 files, but when you convert an older file to 2013, all these management features are in play. That means those large assemblies with configs that take forever to open can be trimmed down and improved for the next time.

Today we will break down the features, what icons mean what and explain how this can be a great tool to clean up your current data and speed up access times. This also plays a part in how 2013 files are accessed and viewed inside of 2012 SP5 using the new version interoperability feature. ~Lou

This podcast covers the new updates envelopes in SolidWorks 2013 and how they have been redesigned to be easier to incorporate into design use. Topics covered:

- Introduction to SolidWorks Envelopes

- Details about enhancements in 2013

- Applications and uses for envelopes in design

- Downstream effects of envelope use

- Tips and preferences

Envelopes in SolidWorks have been around for well over 10 years but ironically was not used by a bulk of users in the community. I have talked about envelopes a few times on the show and despite my personal use of the feature, one aspect that made using envelopes was the workflow that needed to be followed. In the past, parts would need to be created as envelopes or inserted into assemblies as envelopes which made using the feature cumbersome.

Benefits of envelopes were always in the subtraction in mass properties and BOM items, however in 2013 the barrier of workflow was broken down and the flexibility has made this tool much more streamlined and I imagine will be adopted by more users in the design process.

I have a long history using envelopes and am excited to see useful tools like this get some love in the new release. I covered envelopes about 2 years ago in EP-286 and this might be the first time envelopes actually have been given new features. If you have not tried them before or had and thought they were too much work to use, take a look again. ~Lou

Installation and Assemblies, covering chapters 5 and 6 of the What's New PDF, outline changes/enhancements to the SolidWorks product line since the previous release. If you have not done so, please download this PDF and walk through the areas that are most important to you.

The goal of this series is to provide a portable, audio version of the 2013 What's New, providing a quick way to evaluate new features that have been changed/added/removed in the SolidWorks product line. We all fall victim to the "ruts" of using SolidWorks from release to release and knowing what's to come brings awareness early.

I will be releasing an additional show a week as well as the usual monthly Tech News shows (up to 3 a week) in order to cover the entire What's New PDF before FCS (First Customer Ship). Between the podcast, blog and other posts around the web, there will be no shortage of SolidWorks 2013 content to come!

This podcast covers some tools in SolidWorks to conceptualize mechanisms and other mechanical interfaces. Topics covered:

- Creating belts in sketches

- Inserting belts into assemblies

- Interface options

- Traction relation

- Make path options

- Applications

It has been a couple of busy weeks and I have not been able to sit down and dig into a few shows that I have been planning, but the show must go on. In lieu of that, I have reached back into the archives, about 5 years ago, and pulled up one of my favorite tool sets in core SolidWorks.

For those of you who have to do R&D or any sort of "idea storming", the layout tools are great to help verify before any real heavy modeling has to take place. I typically have used these tools for verifying things like range of motion and sketching seems to be the best way to tweak the design in the early stages.

Once in 3D many of these relationships can be utilized for easy of not only fit, form and function testing but also for animations and other visual content creation. If it has been a while since you have tried them out, lookup "Layout Sketches" or "Belts and Pulleys" in the SolidWorks help. ~Lou

This podcast dissects the What's New PDF, outlining all the new features in SolidWorks 2012 along with other tips, tricks and tidbits in the new software. Topics covered in this show:

Chapter 4: Assemblies

- Large Design Review (LDR)

- Usability and workflow improvements

Chapter 5: CircuitWorks

- ProStep EDMD import & export

Chapter 22: Toolbox

- Performance & customization

Chapter 13: Import/Export

- Multi-sheet drawings to DXF and DWG paperspace

- Creo, IFC and Unigraphics import

- STEP and Parasolid assembly import

Assembly Modeling, covering chapters 4, 5, 17, 22, and 13 of the What's New PDF, outlines changes/enhancements to the SolidWorks product line since the previous release. If you have not done so, please download this PDF and walk through the areas that are most important to you.

The goal of this series is to provide a portable, audio version of the 2012 What's New, providing a quick way to evaluate new features that have been changed/added/removed in the SolidWorks product line. We all fall victim to the "ruts" of using SolidWorks from release to release and knowing what's to come brings awareness early.

I will be releasing an additional show a week as well as the usual monthly Tech News shows (up to 3 a week) in order to cover the entire What's New PDF before FCS (First Customer Ship). Between the podcast, blog and other posts around the web, there will be no shortage of SolidWorks 2012 content to come!

This podcast covers the technique of using layout sketches in SolidWorks to quickly verify and change designs before 3D modeling. Topics covered:

- Technique definition

- Layout relations (Traction, Belt/Chain, Make Path)

- Creating and using blocks

- Creating layouts in parts and assemblies

- Converting layout sketches into parts

- Discuss 2 SPR issues within asssembly "Layout Sketches"

- Tips for using layout sketches

- Using layout sketches with SolidWorks Motion

This week we are going to talk about layout sketching and some of the uses for this capability. Layout sketches in SolidWorks are a top-down assembly modeling technique to assist in adding associative elements to a design before starting the 3D model. This technique has been integrated into SolidWorks as a "feature", however many of us who have been using parametric modeling software have approached designs using this same technique using standard sketches.

I have talked about layout sketches 2 other times on the show and the last time (8/9/2009) I had discovered a couple of issues when using this feature from assemblies in SolidWorks. I describe the issue in detail in the show how the "Belt/Chain" (SPR-375387) and "Make Path" (SPR-393207) options are greyed out within the "Layout Sketch" functionality in SolidWorks assemblies. These have been verified as bugs and have SPRs (above) associated with them. I tested this again in SolidWorks 2011 SP4 and the issues remains. I really hope to see this fixed in 2012!

I also mention in the show how you can assign mass properties to blocks in layout sketches and perform motion analysis as well. If you have not used it or it has been a few years, give it a go! ~Lou

This covers chapters 5-8 of the What's New PDF which outlines changes/enhancements to the SolidWorks product line since the previous release. If you have not done so, please download this PDF and walk through the areas that are most important to you.

The goal of this series is to provide a portable, audio version of the 2011 What's New so users can have a quick way to evaluate the features that have been changed/added/removed in SolidWorks' product line. We all fall victim to the "ruts" of using SolidWorks and knowing what's to come brings awareness early.

I will be releasing an additional show a week as well as the usual monthly Tech News shows (up to 3 a week) in order to cover the entire What's New PDF in September before FCS (First Customer Ship). Between the podcast, blog and other posts around the web, there will be no shortage of SolidWorks 2011 content to come! ~Lou

This podcast covers SolidWorks assembly envelopes which are reference components that can be used for easy selection and visibility control without impacting BOM and mass properties. Topics covered:

- Assembly envelope introduction (features and tools)

- Adding / building envelopes for reference

- Applying envelopes for selection

- Applying envelopes for hide/show operations

- Use cases and applications

I wanted to get back to basics and cover more hidden core functionality inside of SolidWorks for assembly design. I love envelopes and they work well when you need a reference component to represent a space (work envelope), volume (liquid in a container), or a foundation product (existing truck for after market parts). The beauty of this tool is how SolidWorks understands the intensions of an envelope, automatically making the envelope part transparent.

There are a number of features envelopes add for component selection (both native to envelopes and integrated in the Advanced Selection tools) and show/hide using the inside/outside/crossing criteria. Possibly one of the best aspects is how SolidWorks negates envelopes from showing up in Bills of Materials and mass property calculations.

Just another hidden jem in the software that many are not aware of. If you use assembly envelopes and have a unique or practicle use case, leave a comment and share it with the community. ~Lou